November 14, 2006
Published on Tuesdays
|
Mickey Butts
By Mark Alburger Throughout her career, cellist extraordinaire Joan Jeanrenaud has been a fighter for the cause of new music, bringing it to the attention of an ever widening, ever more appreciative public. For 20 years, Jeanrenaud was part of the internationally celebrated Kronos Quartet. Multiple sclerosis was a factor in her decision to leave the ensemble in 1999. But despite her illness, Jeanrenaud has continued her career as a composer as well as a performer, succeeding by dint of natural talent and hard work. Born in 1956 in Memphis, Tenn., Jeanrenaud began playing the cello at age 11. She studied at Indiana University and with Pierre Fournier in Geneva, Switzerland. At 22, Jeanrenaud joined Kronos and moved to San Francisco. She has worked with hundreds of composers and musicians, including John Cage, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, La Monte Young, and John Zorn. Jeanrenaud made more than 30 recordings with Kronos, mostly released on Nonesuch, and continues to record (see her Web site). On December 1 and 2, she'll join the Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band for two concerts at San Francisco's Theater Artaud.  Photo by Horst Wackerbarth Five days before Halloween, Jeanrenaud was getting ready to party, opening her San Francisco home, bedecked in "haunted house" splendor, to youngsters as she has for the past 10 years. Jeanrenaud and her large, high-spirited puppy, Jack, greeted me at her front gate. What a beautiful garden. Thanks. It will be transformed into a haunted house in a couple of days. We'll have hundreds of kids come through, and we all play our traditional roles. I'm always a witch, and I play my electric cello. There's a graveyard on the hot tub, a pirate ship, someone in a coffin. ... How long have you lived in this place? Eleven years. And what a beautiful studio, complete with electric cello. [The sleek, black instrument is perched on an elevated stand, as if a work of art.] Nice big-screen computer! I'm a lot more comfortable with it. Do you compose directly into the computer? Yes, with Pro Tools, mostly with acoustic and electric cello. What are you working on now? It's a dance piece for Cid Perlman, a choreographer based in Santa Cruz. I'm just finishing it. I've got to get it done today. So we won't make this an overlong interview. Oh, it's no problem. I'll be finishing it later, and then sending her the MP3 file over e-mail. What resources do you use in this piece? It's all cello — layers of cello. Golly, I can't remember how many layers. Well, I'll have to go and look. Typically I'll have four parts. The string-quartet orientation is still with me! Perhaps it's also the years of four-part harmony study. Could be. In this piece, I think I often have six to eight parts. I'm also writing for an artist, Helen Chellin. A long time ago, Kronos did a concert called Live Video, and Helen was involved with a sculptural painting piece. Since then she has been using my music while painting. She's been working with vulcanologists on the Big Island of Hawaii, recording volcanic activity on a seismograph. The Kilauea caldera. So I'm using volcanic sounds for this piece. I've been into using different sound sources for several years. I did a piece with bird and cricket sounds and cello — I always use cello! Sounds give me inspiration. The volcano piece is about 14 minutes so far. The source material is often manipulated. How? Mostly by cut-and-paste in Pro Tools. I'll have a base sound source that lasts from about 10 seconds to around a minute. So this would be somewhat in the spirit of a pop musician who lays down a drum track and then improvises above it? Yes. Does notation come to play a role? Sometimes I'll still use pencil and paper before computer recording. What about notation software? I use Sibelius if anyone other than myself has to read the notation. I'm also writing a piece called Transition for two cellos and two violas da gamba, which could also be performed by four cellos. Using Sibelius in this capacity is great. Have you written any music without cello? No! [Laughs.] I've written for cello and percussion [marimba/vibraphone], working extensively with Willy Winant at Mills College. We'll be performing that music, along with pieces by Fred Frith and Alvin Curran, at UC Santa Cruz on January 20. These days, what percentage of your time is given respectively to other composers and to your own works? I still perhaps play other people's music more. I'm performing less and less, but will be doing a concert with Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band at Theatre Artaud. Paul has written a cello concerto for me in multiple movements, and while we've been premiering the sections sequentially, these performances will be the premiere of the complete concerto. The first parts were premiered in 2002 and 2003. How many movements are there, now that it's complete? Four. What's it like? It's tough. Virtuosic. But it suits me well. It confirms for me that I relate well to a small ensemble like his, rather than a full symphony orchestra — possibly the Kronos influence again. I've played cello concertos with large groups, really nice pieces, but I'm more of a chamber music person. But now you're a chamber music person who has moved more center stage as a soloist, as opposed to being a member of a consortium of equals in a string quartet. How does that feel? It's a big change. One of the biggest differences is that I don't have another three sets of ears. In a quartet such as the Kronos, you rely and trust the others thoroughly in a dynamic exchange of ideas. Now I have to rely on myself much more, so I record myself and listen. I play for Hank [Dutt, Kronos violist] if I can get him. He's been a great help. Any regrets leaving Kronos? It's been a great change for me. I loved being in Kronos, but I could no longer travel as extensively. Everyone understood, and was very kind when I had to step down. Now, after the departure of [cellist] Jennifer [Culp], Kronos is on cellist no. 4, Jeffrey Zeigler. He's great. He's infused them with a bunch of new energy. Jennifer did a great job, but this is a better fit. Yes, but we no longer have the traditional pretty face for the cello spot. Well, Jeff is a cute face, too! Along with the electric cello and the computer, the most prominently displayed music in your studio here is a volume of the J.S. Bach cello suites — a big contrast to the Kronos repertory. If your performance last Sunday night [with the Del Sol Quartet in Franz Schubert's Quintet] was any indication, you're now playing music both old and new. Did you miss the old when you were in Kronos? Well, certainly the Bach suites are fundamental, but I can't say that I missed playing older music when I was with Kronos. After two years with the group, we realized that we weren't doing anything distinctive by playing older music, and that what we really were drawn to was 20th century selections. So for a while, our repertory was the modern classics: the late Shostakovich quartets, Bartók's six quartets, Berg's Lyric Suite, the quartets of Debussy — almost 20th century! — and Ravel. I grew up playing the traditional, older classics, so I had a strong background, but the newer music was what was calling us. And back then, such music had been not particularly performed well. That's changed. New music is performed better now. Arnold Schoenberg said something along the lines of, "My music is not modern, it's just performed badly!" That was often the case in the days back when I first joined Kronos. No, groups like Del Sol are playing wonderfully. Is it any coincidence that you appeared with Del Sol on a concert series [Music on the Hill] that is run by a woman [Ava Soifer] who lives down the street from you? I've known Ava very well for years. So, we should listen to your Pro Tools multitrack pieces. Cid's piece is called Small Variations. This is the second time I'm working with her. She gave me the time parameters, and a "temp track" of pop music. My music mimics the time frame of the preexistent sounds, with a driving, rhythmic beat. [Listening to the electric cello lines and pointing at a track on the computer screen.] The wave form could almost be an electric guitar. Yes. Cid wanted it to be kept light and danceable, and she's had a working copy of my not-quite-completely finished music for a while. So I'm touching it up, but I've been encouraged not to change it too much, because I know how attached dancers can get to the sounds once they've danced to them for a while. [Looking at the tracks on the screen] So this part looks like six independent tracks with some doubling. Beautiful. What about the seismically inspired piece? Here it is. [Playing a bit.] Like the other one, it's a non-narrative work, an environment. Perfect for a dance. Could be. Although in this case, it's for the volcano book by the painter. The idea is that you open the book, and then you put on this CD while you look at the pictures. Contrary to expectations, the work is not explosive. Rather than volcano sounds, those are the "tick-ticks" of the seismograph ... Yes. ... and the cello playing is again beautiful and haunting. Well, the cello itself is always a beautiful sound. In fact, for me, it's harder to make the music with more of an edge. The way you use volcano, it kind of has a rhythmic groove. Yes. Partly because, as you can see [points to the tracks], I've cut and pasted so many of these little repetitive fragments. A percolating cafe volcano! Where did you pick up your computer recording chops? The first time I used Pro Tools was with Pamela Z. I didn't know much about electronics — I knew a bit from working with Kronos, but I really had to learn a lot of basic stuff. Pamela taught a course at the Lab. Were the other students high-caliber like yourself? They really ran the gamut. I had done performances with Pamela, who was the one who said to me that I might be interested. Kronos had used Pro Tools for years, but it was the engineer who had all the expertise. Then I continued to learn by simply doing. By now I have a lot of cool samples, including "The Big Bang Sound." [Plays a high beep descending glissando.] Your enthusiasm for found sound dates back at least to your years in the Kronos. You joined the group in ...? The fall of 1978. I remember hearing some of your early recordings, but I didn't get to hear you live until I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1987. I took in a concert of yours at the Exploratorium, where you had a moving score projected during the performance. Yes, that would have been the Penderecki. Hard piece. But easier since we could look at the score and see where we were with respect to one another. I suppose we shouldn't have looked! But it made it easier. So not only a dramatic and pedagogical aid for the audience, but a choice that had a performative role for the players. Yes! How did a nice girl from Memphis, Tenn., wind up here? I studied cello with Paul Spurbeck, and he encouraged me to go to the University of Indiana, his alma mater, where I took lessons from Fritz Magg. Then I went to study with Pierre Fournier in Geneva. After that, I thought, "I need to get a job!" Then Hank, who was a friend from Indiana, called me. He had joined Kronos the year before I went to Geneva, and they were looking for a cellist. They wanted someone who would have the right chemistry with the group. Right, I forgot that Kronos predated your association with them. Yes. [First Violinist] David [Harrington]'s the only original member. Initially, the positions for Violin II and Viola changed a lot. Kronos was in Seattle and upstate New York (SUNY Purchase) before moving to San Francisco. That's when Hank joined. So he said, "Come out and audition." The group was very concerned about the dynamic of the ensemble. They had had some issues! Hank knew me, so that was a big plus. By then, they had chosen John [Sherba] to be second violinist. I joined and was with them for 20 years before I got M.S., so it was a good thing that I left then. Wow. So you've been living with multiple sclerosis for years now. Aside from the toll it has taken on your leg [she now walks with effort], has the disease slowed you down? Definitely. I have my good days and my bad days. But you can clearly still play up a storm — or a volcano! [Laughs.] But as for touring and a very busy concert schedule, I felt I had done it, so it's been a good thing ultimately to leave Kronos. I'm so into composition now. I studied comp and improv in college, but never had enough time to devote to it. The process now is improvisation, composition, notation — and my ear has gotten better. Not that there was ever any doubt in those magic years with the Kronos, with the four of you playing and looking great. Speaking of which, who did your promotional photography during those years? That was Michele Clement. She was the one who took those early pictures. She did fashion photography and magazine spreads, and would encourage us to be at ease and fool around — which explains the sunglasses photo, for instance, which we just dir fun at the end of a session. Kronos arguably began a certain hip new-music trend. We just wanted to play, and we realized what we were playing best was new music. That's often how groups are formed: We just wanted to add to the tradition. Groups like the Concord String Quartet, predating us, were doing great things for new music. Like recording the George Rochberg String Quartet No. 3. But they weren't quite doing it with the same "cool factor." Where would Alarm Will Sound and Dinosaur Annex be without you? One of the reasons for my founding 20th Century Music was hearing the four of you doing Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes II at Stanford, along with having heard and performed in the 30th anniversary of [Terry Riley's] In C at Mills, and feeling that the concerts needed to be written up in a brand-new publication. It's a lot easier to see the influence after leaving Kronos. I'm proud of our legacy. And with them, and with me and you and so many people, the key is doing things that you believe in. (Mark Alburger is an award-winning ASCAP composer of concert music published by New Music, the editor-publisher of 21st Century Music Journal, and an oboist, pianist, vocalist, and music critic.) Have an opinion about what you've read here or elsewhere in SFCV? Sound off with a letter to the editors. ©2006 Mark Alburger, all rights reserved. SFCV is a nonprofit journal supported by foundation grants and individual contributions. If you enjoy what you find here and want to see our work continue, please consider making a contribution. By virtue of a generous matching grant, it will be doubled. Your contribution (tax-deductible) may be made by credit card
by
clicking here, or by a check made out to San Francisco Classical Voice and sent to the San Francisco Foundation CIF, (San Francisco Classical Voice account), 225 Bush St. # 500, San Francisco, CA 94104.
From September 1, 1998, to Nov. 14, 2006, SFCV has published, in addition to our weekly features, Music News, and Listening Ahead columns, 2,570 reviews of Bay Area performances by: 53 symphony orchestras (533 reviews), dozens of recital presenters (446 reviews), 43 opera companies (358 reviews), 94 chamber groups (305 reviews), 40 new-music ensembles and programs (271 reviews), 54 early-music ensembles (201 reviews), 38 choral groups (163 reviews), 17 music festivals (120 reviews), 24 chamber orchestras (100 reviews), six musical theater groups (17 reviews), as well as numerous world music groups (15 reviews), youth music ensembles (14 reviews), and other organizations (14 reviews).
Mary VanClay and Janice Berman, Senior Editors Catherine Getches and Richard Thomas, Associate Editors Robert P. Commanday, Founding Editor
Mickey Butts, Janice Berman, Mary VanClay, and Catherine Getches read all e-mails sent to editor@sfcv.org. Mickey oversees the overall quality of the site and manages operations- and business-related issues; Janice assigns and edits features; Mary assigns and edits reviews and the Music News column; Catherine edits reviews, the Listening Ahead column, and the Performance Calendar; Richard assists with production. To e-mail any staffmember individually, click on our names in the list above. Items relevant to the Music News column should also be directed to Janos Gereben at janosg@gmail.com. To post information about upcoming events, please fill out the form on the Calendar submissions page. (Due to the small size of our staff, we cannot post events for you, although we read with interest any press releases sent to editor@sfcv.org.) To receive this weekly journal as a free e-mail newsletter, or to unsubscribe, visit the Subscription page. Past articles are available in our Archive. E-mail editor@sfcv.org to report any problems with our service. |
